1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscopic cantilever, and measuring apparatus using the cantilever, such as a scanning thermal profiler.
2. Related Background Art
The recent progress in scanning microscopes made it possible to obtain an image resulting from the topography of a surface of a substance or a physicochemical property thereof in the resolution of atomic or molecular order.
In the field of such scanning microscopes there is proposed a scanning thermal profiler (hereinafter referred to as STP) for detecting a thermal profile of a surface of a sample (Appl. Phys. Lett. 49 (23), Dec. 8, 1986 P1587-1589). FIG. 1 is a schematic structural drawing to show a conventional STP. This apparatus is an application of the technology of scanning tunneling microscope (hereinafter referred to as STM), which uses a probe 100 having a first conductor 101, an insulator 102, a second conductor 103, and a thermocouple joint 104. In order to compose a thermocouple by the first conductor 101 and second conductor 103, they are made of different types of conductors. Further, the insulator 102 is formed between the first conductor 101 and the second conductor 103, so that the first conductor 101 and the second conductor 103 can be arranged to avoid electrical contact with each other in the portions other than the thermocouple joint 104. The operation of this apparatus is next explained. The probe 100 is arranged as movable by a piezoelectric device 105 in the X-, Y-, and Z-directions. The thermocouple joint 104 in the probe 100 can detect heat in a sample 106. Similarly as with STM, topography of sample 106 can be observed by moving the probe 100 by the piezoelectric device 105 in the Z-axis direction (the direction nearly perpendicular to the surface of sample) while keeping heat of sample detected by the probe 100 always constant upon scanning with probe 100 in the X- and Y-directions, and detecting displacements of probe 100 in the Z-axis direction (the direction nearly perpendicular to the surface of sample). Also, the thermal profile of sample 106 can be observed by scanning the sample with the probe 100 in the X- and Y-directions while keeping the probe 100 at a certain constant height.